NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In middle-aged and older women
considered to be at low risk for heart disease, calcium
build-up in their heart arteries, an indicator of
artery-clogging plaque, predicts the development of heart
disease and heart-related events like chest pain, heart attack
and stroke, new research shows.

The findings, which appear in the latest issue of Archives
of Internal Medicine, come from a study of 3601 women, between
45 and 84 years of age. Excluding women older than 79 years and
those with diabetes, 90 percent were considered to be at low
risk for heart disease, based on the standard risk score, which
includes things like a person's age, cholesterol and blood
pressure levels, smoking habits and diabetes.

However, 32 percent of "low-risk" women had calcium
deposits in their coronary arteries, report Dr. Susan G.
Lakoski and colleagues from Wake Forest School of Medicine in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Over an average of 3.75 years, 24 of the low-risk women had
heart events (such as heart attack and heart pain) and 34 had a
cardiovascular disease event, including heart events, stroke or
death.

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According to Lakoski and colleagues, in "low risk" women,
the presence of coronary artery calcium, as seen on CT scans,
increased the odds of heart disease and heart-disease events by
6.5- and 5.2-fold, respectively, over the course of the study.

"The study findings raise the important question whether
coronary artery calcium screening is warranted among at least
some women who are currently classified as 'low risk'," two
heart doctors note in a written editorial on the study.

At this point, the editorialists say there is not enough
evidence to support coronary artery calcium screening in
low-risk women and they call for further studies to better
identify who would benefit from such screening.